


Not in Kansas Anymore

by DeckofDragons



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell, Alternate Universe - Underswap, M/M, Slow Burn, Swap Paps in Underfell, honeymustard - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-09-28 01:54:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10064324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Frustrated and depressed with his lot in life, Underswap Paps accidentally finds himself in Underfell. Where he meets and befriends Underfell Sans. They agree to work together to repair the machine and get Paps back home. But during this they might become more than just friends.





	1. The Machine

Papyrus was drunk at Muffet’s again. He shouldn’t be, Sans was going to be furious with him when he returned home and found out about it. He hadn’t even intended for this to happen. It had been after work and he’d thought he could come here and have a drink or two and smoke a cigarette. To chill and relax a bit before going back home.

But like too many times before, he hadn’t been able to stop at two drinks. And he’d lost count of how many he’d had. For the last several he’d been telling himself that they were going to be the last one. But alas, self-control had never been a strong suit of his.

“Papyrus, don’t you think that maybe you should go home soon?” Muffet suggested to him after he’d waved her over to refill his drink one last time.

“I will after one more drink,” he promised, gesturing for her to refill his glass. One more drink couldn’t hurt. He was already drunk anyway so it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Muffet sighed, crossing her three pairs of arms. The look on her face said what they both already knew, that after this last drink he’d want just one more and then another. Until closing time and he got kicked out or Sans came to drag him back home.

“’Kay, just let me finish this cigarette first.” He sighed. Muffet was right, he needed to go back home.

Muffet nodded her acquiescence before grabbing his glass and taking it off somewhere else to clean.

Papyrus took as long as he could finishing his last cigarette. He wasn’t sure why he was reluctant to return home these days, but he was. But at last he did finish and after stubbing the butt out in his ash tray he stumbled outside.

Gathering his magic, teleported back home. His magic being a bit screwy due to his intoxication he missed his mark a bit and ended up a few feet from the front door instead of where he’d been aiming for, the middle of the living room.

With a sigh, he trudged over and tried to open the door. It was locked and he didn’t have a key. “Ugh,” he complained as he knocked on the door. If he teleported again he’d probably mess it up and he wasn’t in the mood for that.

He didn’t have to wait very long before Sans answered the door. He sighed as he stepped aside and allowed Papyrus to stumble in. He then closed and relocked the door.

“You’ve been drinking again, haven’t you,” he said. It sounded more like a statement than a question. He knew the answer and didn’t need to ask about it. He didn’t sound angry like he had more than a few times in the past. Just disappointed instead. The kind of disappointment that wasn’t really a surprise and was more an expectation than anything else.

“I uh, yeah,” Papyrus admitted. He felt worse about it during times like these when Sans didn’t even seem annoyed with him. Like he’d expected Papyrus to mess up again and could no longer bother to care about it.

“Well okay.” Sans smiled politely. It was friendly, but the kind of friendly one reserved for acquaintances and other people one had to be nice to. “I made tacos for supper. The leftovers are in the fridge if you decide to eat. But please don’t throw up on the carpet or anything again. But I’ll be up in my room if you need me for anything.”

Papyrus sighed as he watched Sans ascend the stairs and disappear into his room. When and how had they’d grown so far apart? When they’d been kids, they’d been inseparable and had done everything together. Sans, the older brother, had dragged little Papyrus around with him everywhere.

But now, even though they lived in the same house they didn’t really talk all that often. Yeah sure, they exchanged ‘good morning’s and ‘good night’s as well as the occasional ‘how are you’. But other than that, they didn’t interact much. Outside of when Sans had to drag him home when he’d had too much to drink at Muffet’s.

Papyrus’ drinking and smoking only made whatever it was that divided them worse. But for some reason he could never bring himself to stop. They’d been starting to grow apart long before his drinking and smoking habits had started. Those habits had only exacerbated the issue into what it was today.

And he had no clue how to even begin to fix it. Or even if he wanted to fix it. Maybe it was better this way. His laziness had only ever dragged Sans down. Sans had big dreams about becoming a prestigious member of the Royal Guard, he didn’t need his lazy younger brother making that harder for him.

Deciding to skip supper and go straight to bed despite it still being relatively early in the evening, he gathered his magic to teleport up to his room. But, still being far too inebriated to have proper control of his magic, he missed again. This time he was even further off than before, ending up in the basement somehow.

“Fucking hell,” he groaned. He was _not_ in the mood for this.

He glanced over at the machine resting in the corner. It was still covered in the sheet he’d placed over it the last time he’d been down here. When he’d given up on ever fixing the damn thing. Which had been over a year ago now, and he hadn't been down here since.

According to the notes and blueprints he’d found about the machine, it was supposed to act as some sort of gateway between alternate realities. Assuming those existed, which they most likely did, there’d been plenty of complex mathematical proof in the notes he’d found. Though he couldn’t know for sure unless he somehow got the machine up and running and used it to go to one.

He strolled over to it and pulled the sheet off, disturbing the thin layer of dust that had settled over it. It looked just like he remembered it. A big computer looking thing with a big screen in the center, presumably where information about whatever world one choose to go to would be displayed. There was a keyboard underneath it, with wingdings letters instead of normal ones. The notes and blueprints had also all been written in wingdings and Papyrus was an expert at translating it now because of that. So, if he ever did somehow get the machine running, the keyboard would be no problem for him like it would be for most everyone else.

He sighed as he pressed randomly at some of the colourful buttons to either side of the keyboard and screen. Of course, the machine didn’t respond. He had only a vague idea of what the buttons were supposed to do, the blueprints hadn’t been very clear on that or a number of other things. Like how all the inner parts were supposed to go together.

Maybe he could go back to trying to fix it. It would give him something to do that wasn’t drinking or smoking and might even help him cut back a little. But did he really have the energy to do that? He’d tried for years and had only ever gotten frustration out of it. When he’d first found it, he’d been so obsessed with it and finding out how it worked and fixing it, that he hadn’t had time for much else.

Had that been the reason him and Sans grew so far apart? If not, it certainly had only made it worse.

“Stupid fucking thing,” he said. Frustrated with it and a lot of other things, he kicked it as hard as he could.

To his surprise, it jolted to life when his foot connected with it, making a loud clang. The screen staring flashing various colours and all the lights along the sides started flashing too. None of the lights were even it sync with each other, all of them going off at random. It was like an epileptic’s nightmare. Kicking delicate machinery probably wasn’t a very good idea.

He took a fearful step back away from it as it starting humming and rattling. The rattling didn’t sound right, like something was broken in there and banging around, hitting stuff. It worried him more than a little.

He took another step back, getting ready to run for the door. The air felt thick with electricity, as if he were about to get shocked by something. That was the last coherent thought he had before what felt like a bolt of lightning ripped through him with searing pain. Followed immediately by blackness.


	2. New House Guest

Sans flopped on the couch in the living room as soon as he teleported in. Something was happening with the Royal Guard today, so Boss wouldn’t be back until sometime later this evening. It meant Sans could put his feet up on the coffee table without getting scolded, something he was already taking advantage of. But it also meant he’d have to fare for himself when it came to supper. Boss being the one who normally made it.

He could worry about that later though, for now, he was going to take a nap. He’d worked hard at his job today, sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing other than watch the snow fall at his sentry station. He deserved a little break.

But before he could even start to properly drift off he jerked awake as he heard a loud noise. It sounded like how he imagined a lightning strike would sound like when it hit the ground. And it had come from the basement beneath the house.

Tense and nervous, he stood up. His magic poised to attack, he made his way to the window and peeked outside. There was no one.

He then teleported to just outside the basement door. It was closed and showed no signs of forced entry. There were no tracks in the snow leading to it either. And Sans was the only one who a had key for it. So, it should be _impossible_ for anyone to be down there. But the sound had undoubtedly come from the basement.

He pulled out his key and opened the door, letting it swing open. Nothing jumped out at him and from this angle he couldn’t see anything down there.

Wary and still ready to attack, he made his way down the stairs after closing the door. Flipping on the light switch when he reached the bottom he froze. Someone was down here, lying on the floor in front of the rusted old machine. They appeared to be unconscious and the most obvious thing about them was the garishly bright orange hoodie they were wearing. But how had they gotten down here?

He stepped a little close to get a better look. “Boss…?” he said when he got close enough to see the stranger’s face. But no, Boss wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a hoodie, especially one of _that_ colour. And though this guy’s face was very similar to Boss’ it wasn’t exact. He lacked the scar over his eye and the sharp teeth. But then who was he and where had he come from?

Sans kicked his foot out a little, nudging Not Boss’ face. No reaction, whoever he was he was out cold.

Crouching down beside him, Sans searched his pockets for an I.D. or something. All he got was a half empty pack of cigarettes, a lighter and few gold coins. He put the cigarettes and gold in his own coat pockets, putting the lighter back because he already had one of his own.

Straightening once more, he eyed the machine suspiciously. It was broken and rusted. The screen had a large crack in it, the wingdings keyboard was missing several keys, and some of the buttons had been broken off as well. And that was just the face of it. The inside was a lot worse.

Despite that, Sans knew what it was supposed to be for, travel to alternate realities. There had even been a time when he’d considered fixing it up and trying it out.  He’d given up in less than a week. It had taken up too much of his time and he’d been much more concerned with keeping himself and his brother alive.

But was it possible that Boss’ look-alike had come through it? Meaning he technically was Papyrus, just from another universe. That was the only explanation that made sense given how it was impossible for him to have gotten in here any other way. And he _was_ lying directly in front of it.

“All right Papyrus, time to wake up.” He shook Papyrus’ shoulder with his foot, not bothering to be gentle. Still no response. He sighed as he considered what do about this.

If this guy was from another universe, which he no doubt was, that must mean he’d fixed the machine in his world. Or, as was more likely, his Sans had, Boss had never had an aptitude for stuff like that. And given the state of the machine in this world he was probably stuck here unless Sans fixed the machine for him.

“Great, fucking perfect,” Sans groaned already annoyed at that prospect. There was probably no way he could fix this thing, and even if he could it would take ages. Meaning this new Papyrus was going to be stuck here possibly forever, unless his Sans came to retrieve him. But in the meantime, Sans couldn’t leave him to get ripped apart on the streets for looking like he wanted to cosplay as the sun.

“Alright pal, let’s get ya inside.” He grabbed Papyrus’ wrist and teleported them back upstairs inside the house. He flopped Papyrus’ unconscious body on the couch. Perfect, he took up all the space on the couch so Sans couldn’t sit there anymore. Heck, he looked like he was taller than Boss.

Sans should probably check him over for injuries just in case the reason he was unconscious was because he had some kind of fatal wound somewhere. With a sigh, Sans set to work examining him, looking him over for injuries that might’ve been missed in the darkness of the basement. He did as thorough an examination as he could without removing his clothes, no way was he going to mess with that. There wasn’t any damage on his stupidly coloured hoodie or anywhere else, and he didn’t have any cracks on his skull. And he was breathing steady. So, he was probably fine, just knocked out from the trip here. And if he wasn’t, there wasn’t a whole lot Sans could do about that.

As soon Sans finished with that, he left and went to the kitchen. He was done dealing with their new house guest for now and he was hungry.

He opened the fridge and pulled out a Tupperware container of last night’s lasagna and a bottle of mustard. The couch being taken he was forced to sit at the table to eat. He didn’t even bother heating the lasagna up before spraying it down with mustard and chowing down. At least Boss wasn’t here to complain about how gross he was for not only eating cold lasagna but also covering it in mustard.

It took him maybe all five minutes to finish eating. Quickly stuffing his face was something he was very good at. He even cleaned up the mess he had made, Boss would be proud. He’d done good so he felt like he could get away with not cleaning the Tupperware container, putting it in the sink instead.

“Sans!” Boss’ yell came from the living room. Apparently, Sans had taken longer messing with their new house guest then he’d thought, if Boss was home already.

“Yeah Boss,” Sans said as he strolled out of the kitchen, hands in his pockets.

“Why is there a clone of me wearing an ugly hoodie sleeping on our couch?”

“Oh uh, he is you, kinda. Ya remember that broken old machine we got down in the basement? And remember how I told ya it was supposed to make travel to alternate universes possible and stuff? He came through that and he wouldn’t wake up so I put him on the couch for now.”

“So, he’s me from parallel universe and he came through the machine in the basement? The one you said was unfixable.”

“Well yeah, but obviously, his bro fixed the one in his world or something. And our machine’s probably not _totally_ unfixable, it would just take a lot of work and effort to fix it. Even though I guess if we’re gonna try to get him home I’m gonna have to try to repair it or something.” Sans didn’t look forward to trying to do that all by himself. If he had help maybe he’d be willing to as long as it meant a break from boring old sentry duty. But by himself, no, he’d rather not.

“You mean you might actually do some real work for once? Yeah right, I’d like to see the day _that_ happens.” Boss scoffed. “But I suppose, if he is an alternate version of me we should take him in. Even if he is wearing the dumbest piece of clothing I’ve ever laid eyes on.”


	3. Darker World

As soon as Papyrus woke up he knew something was wrong. Something about his surroundings felt off, he wasn’t sure why that would be. His whole body hurt and was extraordinarily stiff. Worst hangover ever. He must have drunk a lot last night since he wasn’t sure what happened last.

But at least he’d made it to the couch. Or a couch. In a room that looked an awful lot like his own living room except for the colour scheme. The couch was a deep red instead of blue and the walls were gray and unadorned. The T.V. was in the same spot though it looked older and more worn down, and the stand was the same way. It was like someone had copied the living room in his house and recreated it in darker colours and shittier pieces of furniture.

“Oh, it looks like Sleeping Beauty’s finally woken up.” A familiar sounding voice came from the direction of the stairs.

Looking over, Papyrus paused. “Sans…?” he said. This guy certainly looked a lot like Sans, if Sans was going through some kind of emo phase, with his black coat and dark red shirt underneath. His teeth were all wrong, they were pointed and sharp, and one of them had been replaced with a gold replica. And there was a scar above his left eye socket, how had he gotten that?

“Yes and no,” he said. “I am Sans just not your Sans.”

“Uh…” was all Papyrus could bring himself to say. How much had he drunk last night for him to have missed whatever had happened here? Was Sans playing some kind of trick on him?

“You’re in an alternate reality pal,” Sans, but not Sans, said, chuckling at his confusion. “Ya came through the machine in the basement, remember?”

Everything came back to Papyrus with those words. The machine and how he’d kicked it. Causing the flashing lights and noise, followed by the shock. And now he was here. But that would explain why he felt so shitty this morning.

“Oops,” was all he could say to that.

“So, I take it ya didn’t do it on purpose then, huh?” Sans said.

“Well, uh no, not really. I sorta kicked it and then it lit up and made some noise and zapped me. And now I guess here I am.”

“Wow, and I thought your choice of clothing was dumb.”

Papyrus was tempted to take offense at that statement. His choice of clothing wasn’t dumb, even if kicking the machine had been. But how was this guy an alternate version of Sans, his brother? Sans was one of the nicest people he’d ever known, he’d never say something like that, even in jest.

“Yo Boss,” Sans shouted in the general direction of the kitchen. “Alt you finally woke the fuck the up.”

“Good,” came the reply. “I have just finished making breakfast, so we can discuss what we’re going to do about him while we eat.”

Standing up and looking in the kitchen, Papyrus saw that this world’s version of himself was also dressed like he was going through an emo phase. Only this guy was even edgier with his black and red accented armor and torn looking short red scarf around his neck. He had a long scar over one eye and had sharp teeth similar to Sans’.

“Uh, good morning,” Papyrus said, trying to be polite. He wasn’t sure what to make of these guys and how different they were from him and his brother. Or even the fact that he had accidentally ended up in an alternate universe. One where he and his brother were some kind of weird emos or something.

“Good morning,” other Papyrus, ‘Boss’ Sans had called him for some reason, said. “It is good to know that even if you are dressed like an idiot you at least have the decency to be polite. I suppose that makes sense, since you are an alternate version of me.”

Again, with the insults about his attire. They were the ones who were dressed weird, not him. But maybe saying anything about that, given his circumstances wouldn’t be very smart. He was their guest here, he was relying on their hospitality to not end up sleeping on the streets. Not to mention he’d probably need their help to get back home.

“Just remember,” Boss continued, “this is my house and you _will_ follow my rules.” The way he said it made it clear that there would be severe consequences if he didn’t.

“Yeah, of course,” Papyrus said. How could an alternate version of himself be so authoritative?

“Good,” Boss said. “Now, it is time for breakfast. We will discuss exactly what those rules are later, for now we need to eat and discuss what we’re going to do about you in general.”

Papyrus followed the two of them into the kitchen, where a breakfast of eggs and bacon awaited them. Sans went straight to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of mustard before joining them at the table. And then to Papyrus’ disgust, he proceeded to squeeze the bottle out over his serving of eggs.

“Sans that is absolutely disgusting, don’t do that in front of our guest,” Boss scolded him.

Sans’ only response was to grin wide before eating a large forkful of his mustard covered eggs. Yeah, that was gross.

“Ugh, Sans I swear to god,” Boss said in an exasperated tone, earning a small chuckle from Sans.

“What’s the matter Boss? I think it tastes _egg_ cellent,” Sans joked. He really was completely unlike the Sans Papyrus knew back home if he was making puns.

“We have a guest Sans, that means now is not the time for your bad jokes.” And Boss apparently _didn’t_ like puns, the opposite of how Papyrus was. How odd. “Anyway, other me, we need to discuss what to do with you.”

Papyrus jumped a little at being addressed so suddenly, he’d been fascinated with watching the two of them. They looked so similar to himself and his brother, but other than that they seemed totally different. Even down to the way they talked, Boss’ inflections were more similar to the Sans’ Papyrus knew and this Sans’ inflections were more similar to Papyrus’. It was an odd thing to notice but he did.

“I uh, I don’t know,” he said, regaining his composure. “I kinda ended up here on accident and I guess I’m gonna have to go back. The machine in this world wouldn’t happen to be working, would it?” He could only hope it was, otherwise he’d have to try to fix it and he’d already proven that he wasn’t very good at that.

“Nope,” Sans said, crushing his hopes. “That thing’s more broken and beat up than you’d be if ya ever went outside wearing that getup.”

What did that even mean? Why would he be beat up for wearing this even if it was unfashionable?

“I guess I’ll have to fix it up then,” he said, choosing to ignore Sans’ comment. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to do it, but he had no choice. He had to get back home.

“What really?” Sans asked, sounding like he didn’t believe him. “Ya really think ya can fix it?”

“Uh yeah, I don’t see why not.” He could see why not, he couldn’t properly fix the one in his own universe. But he didn’t want to admit to being unsure of himself in front of these two.

“Well I mean, like you’re an alt version of Boss. And no offense Boss, but when it comes to sciencey shit he’s dumber than a sack of bricks. So, I figured you’d be the same.”

“Sans,” Boss scolded him. “That is simply just not my area of expertise. I’m sure if I applied myself I could…”

“To be fair,” Sans cut him off, which judging by his facial expression annoyed him to no end. “When it comes to anything you’re good at I’m dumber than a sack of bricks too. Like if the cooking were up to me we’d all starve to death.”

Well, this was certainly weird. It seemed like their roles were swapped in this world. And maybe their basic personalities as well, judging based off what he’d seen so far. That was very interesting. What else might be different? He’d have to eventually explore around the place and see, maybe ask the two of them about it.

“No Sans,” Boss said. “If the ‘cooking’ were up to you, we’d be eating at Grillby’s all the time and we’d die of food poisoning in less than a week. Honestly, I have no idea how you can even stand to set foot in that place, let alone eat there as often as you do. Especially when my cooking’s superior in every way.”

“Hey uh,” Papyrus interrupted their bickering. If that’s what it could be called. Him and his brother never interacted like that so he wasn’t sure what to make of it. Were they fighting or something else? “I don’t know ‘bout alt me, but I’m pretty good sciencey shit. I was even kinda working on repairing the machine back home. But uh do ya think maybe ya could help me a little bit? It would get done faster that way so you guys wouldn’t have to put up with me for so long.” Also, Papyrus had already proven he couldn’t do it by himself, maybe with assistance he could.

“Yeah, I’ll help ya,” Sans said.

“You’re just saying that because you’re hoping to get let off sentry duty, aren’t you?” Boss said, narrowing his eyes at Sans.

“No, of course not, I just wanna help our new friend out,” Sans said, obviously lying. “I am offended that you’d _ever_ think me so lazy as to want to skip out on the oh so important job of standing around and watching the snow fall. Why, if I’m not there to watch that snow fall, who would be? Really I’m…”

“Fine,” Boss practically growled at him. “I’ll talk to Undyne about shortening your hours so you can help him get home. I’ll have to come up with a reason why you need that but I’m sure I’ll come up with something. But if I ever catch you two slacking off you’ll get your full hours back and you’ll still be obligated to help him repair the machine in your off time.”

“I would _never_ slack off Boss, you know that.” The way Sans said that made it obvious that slacking off was something he did all the time. The exact opposite of how the Sans Papyrus knew was.

“Can I ask you two something?” Papyrus asked, deciding to ignore the other parts of the conversation he didn’t understand for now.

“Yes, go ahead,” Boss said.

“Why does he call you ‘Boss’?” It was clear from what they’d said earlier that Sans worked under his brother in some way. But that didn’t really explain the use of the nickname.

“That’s because,” Sans said before Boss could reply. “He’s super bossy and always telling me what to do.”

“I am not bossy,” Boss protested. “And I only tell you what to do because if I didn’t you’d sit around and nap all day.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with napping all day,” Sans said, echoing Papyrus’ own feelings on the subject.

“Yeah there is and you know it,” Boss said. “Anyway, I have to go to work, you two can start working on the machine. But clean the dishes first.”

“Of course, see ya later Boss,” Sans said.

Boss stood up from the table. “And no slacking off. The sooner we can get our guest home the better.” He gave Sans a pointed look before heading for the door.

“We can do the dishes later,” Sans said as soon as they heard the front door open and close, signaling Boss was gone.

“All right,” Papyrus agreed. Laziness and procrastination were things he was always ready to indulge in. “Let’s go look at the machine then I guess.”

“You can go on ahead and do that, I’ll join ya in a bit after a nap.” Sans fake yawned into his hand as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a key, presumably to the basement, and held it out towards him.

“Like hell, you’re gonna do that.” Instead of taking the key, Papyrus grabbed hold of his wrist and teleported them down to the basement.


	4. Nicknames

Sans had never been teleported by somebody else before. He hadn’t even known anyone other than himself who _could_ teleport. It felt different than when he did it and more disorienting because he hadn’t expected it.

“Holy fuck,” he said as soon as they’d landed in the basement.

“What? Can your brother not teleport?” Papyrus asked.

“No.” Sans barely knew this guy but he could already tell he was different from Boss in more than just his poor choice of clothing. But he hadn’t expected anything like that. Boss was probably going to be jealous when he found out, he’d wanted to be able to teleport ever since he found out Sans could. “So, can your bro do it too or… what?”

“No, he can’t.” His voice sounded sad, probably missing his brother. “Let’s get started I guess.”

The lights hummed to life as Papyrus flipped the light switch on. “Shit,” he said, looking at the busted-up machine. It was obviously not what he had expected to find.

“Told ya it was broken,” Sans said.

Papyrus moved closer to the machine. He pulled a screwdriver out of a nearby toolbox and began unscrewing the panel that covered the machine’s inner workings. Some of the screws were rusty so it took longer than it otherwise would.

Sans stood watching, with his hands in his pockets. His offer to help him fix the machine had been solely to have an excuse to skimp out on sentry duty. He’d been planning on napping for an hour or two before coming down to ‘help’, or more accurately stand and watch. Papyrus apparently had other ideas about that though.

Finally, the panel came away and Papyrus lay it on the ground with a soft clatter. “Fuck,” he groaned at the sight of the machine’s innards.

It was a complete and total mess in there. Some of the necessary parts were missing or broken beyond repair. And lot of the parts that were there were damaged and rusted, in need of their own major repairs.

“How did it even get this bad?” Papyrus asked.

“I dunno.” Sans shrugged. “It was like that when I found it.”

“Ugh, this is gonna take forever.”

Sans wasn’t sure they even _could_ fix it. There were so many things that they’d have to replace and repair before they could even start on trying to put them together to make them work.

“Well ya said you were working on the machine in your world so it should be no probs for you, right? Since ya already fixed that one and shit,” Sans said.

“Well uh, I was _working_ on it, but I didn’t fix it. I uh actually _couldn’t_ figure out how to make it work, no matter how hard I tried. Kicking it was the first time I got any reaction out of it at all.”

“Perfect,” Sans groaned. And now Sans was obligated to help him figure out something he hadn’t been able to on own. But it would be more interesting than sentry duty. Which was the whole reason he’d agreed to help in the first place. Anything to get him out of sentry duty was worth it in his book, even if it was real work. And as much as he’d like to only pretend to help, sitting around doing nothing instead, Boss would never let him get away with that if he found out.

He strolled over to sit cross-legged besides Papyrus in front of the machine. “I guess let’s start with separating out the bits that need replacing and the ones we can conceivably repair,” he said. They’d probably also have to clean out the rust on the inside too. But that could wait until later.

They set to work, not speaking much. They decided to separate the pieces into three piles. One for things that would most likely work with little to no repair. One for parts that were busted up enough to require repairs, though they’d replace those if they could. And the last for the parts that would need to be completely replaced.

“I’ve decided I’m gonna start calling you ‘Red’,” Papyrus blurted out, not even five minutes after they’d started working. “If that’s okay with you.”

“Why?” Sans asked.

“Well uh, it just you’re a lot different from my brother and it’s hard to think of ya with the same name as him. So, I think it’d be easier to give ya a nickname, if you’re cool with that.”

“Fine, but only if I get to give ya a stupid nickname back.” Sans couldn’t lie, even if he mostly thought of his brother as ‘Boss’ these days it was still a bit weird thinking of this new Papyrus under that name when he was obviously so different from Boss.

“That’s fine. What did ya have mind?”

Sans thought for a bit for a nickname that would fit while also being just as stupid as his own new nickname was. “How ‘bout ‘Stretch’?” he said after a while.

“Okay sure, but why ‘Stretch’?”

“You’re too tall. It’s like somebody _stretched_ my bro out a little to make ya.” Sans could guess why his own new nickname was ‘Red’. His magic was red and so was his shirt. Both were dumb nicknames, but they would do.

With that they went back to work. At first, they didn’t talk a whole lot, other than what was needed. But after a while Stretch started asking him about this world and answered a few of Sans questions about his world.

What he learned was that there were quite a few differences between their worlds. Alphys and Undyne had apparently swapped places in his world, same with King Asgore and Queen Toriel. Instead of Grillby’s he had Muffet’s. And the more they talked the more Sans realized that personality wise, the two of them were far more similar than Stretch was to Boss.

“So, what’s your brother like?” Red asked. They were probably about halfway done with separating out the pieces and had decided to take a quick break. Which no doubt wasn’t going to be so quick if Red had any say in the matter.

“I uh… he’s super cool,” Stretch replied. He reached into his hoodie pocket, searched around for a bit before pulling out his lighter. “Where did…”

“Looking for this?” Red grinned as he pulled out the pack of cigarettes he’d stolen from Stretch last night.

Stretch glared at him for a second before making a grab for them. Red, still grinning, pulled it out of his reach at the last moment.

“Asshole,” Stretch said, making another, more determined, grab for them.

“Nah dude, their mine now.” Red had to lean back away from him from to keep the cigarette pack out of his grasp. “You can have one though.” He pulled one out and offered it to him.

Stretch glared at him for a few seconds more before snatching it out of his hand. “Fucking thief,” he muttered under his breath, though clearly not with any intent for Red not to hear him. He then pulled out his lighter and lit his cigarette after placing it in his mouth.

Red pulled out a cigarette of his own and put the pack back in his coat pocket. He lit it and took a long deep draw on it. It wasn’t as strong as the brand he was used to, but he didn’t care.

“So, your brother?” Red prompted when they’d settled back down.

Stretch sighed, letting out a thick cloud of smoke. “He’s probably the nicest person I’ve ever known. He’s gonna join the Royal Guard one day and make a name for himself. He’s pretty good at cooking and likes to make puzzles and traps.”

Stretch had been here for less than a day. So, the sadness in his voice couldn’t be because he was already missing home that badly, could it? He hadn’t sounded homesick or sad when he’d spoken about the other things in his world. Meaning his problem had to be something to do with his brother. But what?

“He’s friends with practically everyone in town,” Stretch continued. How was it possible for someone to be friends with everyone in town? There was no way Stretch’s brother could be powerful enough to pull that off, could he? Especially since he apparently wasn’t even in the Royal Guard yet. But Red wasn’t going to ask, he’d rather let that information be revealed on its own.


End file.
